Patch is up (v1.01 incoming)

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X_Lupin
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by X_Lupin »

Lol, I disappeared for a while, and come back to this?

Amazing, bloody amazing.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Kojima_Devotee »

Hahaha, welcome back X_Lupin. Indeed, the progress has been amazing - I myself have been unable to contain my amazement. Not only has Slowbeef brought this project back to its feet, but he's supplying us with frequent updates. Marc himself is away at the moment, and we await his return.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by The Prince II »

Policenauts progress

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slowbeef
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by slowbeef »

So close...

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One bug away from being done with everything I've been given thus far...

Actually, this is most likely from a combination of using an older version of the translation file and choosing a bad candidate for a control code. Artemio said he was going to write a script to give me a range of them, or when Marc gets back he can give me a newer version of the translation file that will remove this instance of this somewhat rare (hopefully) bug.

What happens next? I'd like to tighten up my patcher some more, but also I guess I start putting stuff together and incorporating the team's other stuff, like the animated cutscene subtitles, the name tags, and the Game Main System Menus. Then when Marc gets back, it's more translating for him from Scarboy's voiceover cutscene dump and more patching translation files for me.

I dunno, we're actually movin' along pretty quick!
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by seraphssavior »

Once again, damn impressive. Aside from testing/betas, etc, is there a specific process to this? Do you need to implement every line, or is it faster, like you only need to figure out how to solve one problem before applying it to the rest of the game easily?

Can't wait.
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slowbeef
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by slowbeef »

seraphssavior wrote:Once again, damn impressive. Aside from testing/betas, etc, is there a specific process to this? Do you need to implement every line, or is it faster, like you only need to figure out how to solve one problem before applying it to the rest of the game easily?

Can't wait.
It's more like you solve one big problem and everything cascades into place. The problem is that it's so large and complex and the text is so variable that if there are bugs, you might or might not see them.

For example, one of the stupid things my hack was doing earlier was not ignoring its own control codes and printing them out... but they're rarely ever encountered mid-text-stream (I mark off "critical sections" meaning "These are parts of the text the game needs in place, so do not read or fuck with that"). Someone else managed to find it by clicking on the gun in Jonathan's office, then Ed's picture, then Jonathan again. Only that specific sequence exhibits that exact text string, so therefore, I never saw that bug until it was pointed out to me, because it actually never happened anywhere else.

But I want to encounter that thing earlier rather than later because it would really suck if that bug was there all along and we never noticed until like the Epilogue or something.

So basically, you patch the whole thing and someone finds something that breaks, and you have to tweak it so that it fixes that and doesn't break something else. Over and over and over again, until you get it right.

No matter what though, even if I stumble upon the magic code that fixes everything with no bugs, that doesn't mean "We can release the patch tomorrow!" Because we still have to incorporate all the hacks, and all the files and playtest it to ensure there's no bugs... or at least none that we can find.

All of this is predicated on the fact that there's nothing really effin' weird out of left field that happens once in Act 3 or something that completely screws with how the whole thing works.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Kojima_Devotee »

Hahaha, don't you worry, Slowbeef; Our community was made to wait patiently. We're not expecting a "patch tomorrow" announcement. (For example, I'm not even expecting a release this year.) We're all thrilled just by the fact that the translation is back on track. Admittedly, I never truly realized how far along Marc and his team were until your progress reports and supplemental images and videos were released.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by X_Lupin »

Indeed, KJ, you are correct.

I'm sure I speak for everyone, slowbeef, when I offer you the virginity of my firstborn daughter.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by 8bitsonic »

X_Lupin wrote:Indeed, KJ, you are correct.

I'm sure I speak for everyone, slowbeef, when I offer you the virginity of my firstborn daughter.
I can top that.

Slowbeef, if this patch comes out before year's end, you can have MY virginity.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Kojima_Devotee »

Slowbeef, you finish this patch, and I'll allow you to have 8BitSonic's virginity. Following the completion of this task, I will have him reacquire it through some kind of Cyberpunk Adventure, and you can freely take it an additional time.

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Yup.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by ratperson665 »

Wow! This is just- I mean it's just- just- well, I mean- I mean- what I'm trying to say is- it's-

All right I'll spit it out! WOW, I'M STUNNED! I MEAN WOW! WOW! THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL CUT OF METROPOLIS HAS BEEN FOUND AND THE POLICENAUTS TRANSLATION IS MAKING SOME GREAT PROGRESS!(breaths, calms down) Ahhh, life is sweet.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by 8bitsonic »

ratperson665 wrote:WOW, I'M STUNNED! I MEAN WOW! WOW! THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL CUT OF METROPOLIS HAS BEEN FOUND AND THE POLICENAUTS TRANSLATION IS MAKING SOME GREAT PROGRESS!
Take it easy, don't come all over us...
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by James_The_Stampede »

8bitsonic wrote:
ratperson665 wrote:WOW, I'M STUNNED! I MEAN WOW! WOW! THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL CUT OF METROPOLIS HAS BEEN FOUND AND THE POLICENAUTS TRANSLATION IS MAKING SOME GREAT PROGRESS!
Take it easy, don't come all over us...
*Wipes the crossfire off on 8bitsonics shirt* Thank god I wear glasses.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Anubis »

What an amazing end to the year. I'm more excited for the translation projects then I am for any retail games this fall.

Mother 3, Policenauts, Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

It's amazing that these games are all making such progress at around the same time.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Pulstar »

Mother 3 is getting done? :o

There's a new space RTS game based on the Legend of Galactic Heroes anime. It'll never be localised into english but I hope a group picks it up. Downloading the demo now to see whether it's worth nagging translation groups over.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by James_The_Stampede »

Anubis wrote:What an amazing end to the year. I'm more excited for the translation projects then I am for any retail games this fall.

Mother 3, Policenauts, Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

It's amazing that these games are all making such progress at around the same time.
It's a governmental conspiracy. You see, with the economy tanking, they figure they can calm the masses with multiple releases of 100% concentrated awesome. The people are distracted, therefore happy. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to sorting Governor Palins email.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by slowbeef »

One last ASM tweak, a little more Perl and I'm... done?

Yeah, it works for all the files I have translations for. I'd like to refactor it and maybe make it a little more fault tolerant, I guess, but for a ROM hack project, it's functional and fine. No known bugs. Yet, I guess, but I think it's pretty solid.

I guess now we await Marc's return?

Well, I'm going to start organizing and incorporating the other hacks, like Scarboy's inserter and the old guy's movie and main system menu stuff. But we're looking pretty good from where we are.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Jack Stern »

I have a question:

Are the voices during cut scenes and in-game dialogs stored in a separate directory than music, or are they encoded in the same bgm?
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Kojima_Devotee »

Amazing job, Slowbeef. Actually, does that mean you've tested the entire game in English?

Either way, it sounds like the progress is still moving at an amazing rate! Again, we appreciate your involvement heavily.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by slowbeef »

No, I haven't. I've only tested the translations that Marc has given me - which is just the Prologue and a little of Act 1. I'll need his stuff for the rest.

...Come to think of it, I can hit up a Japanese speaking friend or Babelfish and give myself a shittier translation for testing purposes. But we've gotta get the integration working anyway, so...
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Jack Stern »

Do you happen to have the japanese text? I'm learning the language as part of a minor, and my sister is translator. I can help regarding that matter.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Kojima_Devotee »

Chances are, you're better off using Marc's translation, unless size and other factors won't have a large effect when the Marc version is used.

I agree with Anubis, though, this has been a good year for some amazing fan translation projects. I never played any of the Persona games, but I hear 2 is quite the cult classic.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Snatcher42 »

Amazing that it's really coming together! Don't worry guys, take your time. I've waited about 15 years, can wait a little longer for it to be done right.

One question: I see you're using pSX for testing, slowbeef. That's great, but has mouse support been added to the emulator yet? If not, how are you finding the shooting sequences? I had trouble getting through some even with a mouse!

Edit: Ah, you've only worked through Act 1 so far... Ok, they aren't so tough there yet. But load up the Private Collection if you have it and give the shooting gallery a try!
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by slowbeef »

I'm actually using psxrel which is a build of PSX with a disassembler. That basically means I sacrifice stability for a tool that lets me go "pause execution and show me exactly what you are doing HERE" Most Playstation ROM hacking projects apparently recommend PCSXTrace, but it didn't work with my copy of Policenauts (other people have got it working) and I got used to PSXrel anyway.

This is why in one of my videos, I alt-tab away from the game - the emulator stopped responding and I was worried about it crashing. This has nothing to do with the hack - we tried it in ePSXe and it worked great. It'll work fine in normal PSX as well, it's just that the disassembler makes the emulator a little buggier.

So I actually haven't even tried mouse support if you want to know the truth. If you want to get a lot better at the shooting sequences, try doing it a million times because there was a bug when the garbage truck drives by - you get really good really fast. He always manages to hit me in the alley, though.
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Re: Current Project Status (Updated September 3rd)

Post by Solidé »

I just chatted with Artemio about making some forum banners dedicated to translation Project.
Actually i remember that this has been discussed here before like a year ago, but no sigs were made if i remember correctly. But since there has been some major updates lately i thought why not to make these now when it's maybe more current topic. Idea of these banners are just simply to spread world to know about the translation by using these banners as sigs on other boards. So that's why there should be no nicknames or other marks/signs referring to any members. But Only texts referring to policenauts.net and about the translation.

So i have only made one, but most likely will make more in upcoming days, weeks and months.
Also if there is other members here who are interested and skilled to make their own just post them in this topic.

I'm propbaly going to make all my banners in size 450x120 pixel, as this one is. This i just the first one i made in half hour or something. If anyone wants feel free to use it on other forums.

btw, i also asked Artemio about if it's possible to release the banners at the project site and he sais it's possibility. But that' about if Marc decide to do so. ;)
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